A new limited TV series depicting Leonardo da Vinci as a gay man is being developed.
Frank Spotnitz, whose producing credits are extensive and include “The Man in the High Castle”, and “Sherlock” writer Stephen Thompson, are working together on the show, titled “Leonardo”.
The English-language series will portray the famed Italian artist as a “gay outsider.”
“He was a real outsider for those times. He was an illegitimate child, gay, vegetarian and left-handed,” said Eleonora Andreatta, the Head of Drama for RAI, the production company behind the show
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Leonardo” will explore the artist and inventor’s life through the eyes of “a girl called Caterina, who was one of his models,” and “will allow us to get inside his soul and his secrets,” Andreatta added.
It’s set to air next year, coinciding with the 500-year anniversary of da Vinci’s death.
Billy Budd
One of the true geniuses of mankind. He was not ashamed of being gay, and wrote a lot about it in his journals. He actually once wrote that gay guys should frequently go to turkish baths, in order to see beautiful naked men. He was once arrested accused of sodomy or some similar charge.
He was perhaps the best artist we ever had in terms of painting (invented the sfumato tecnique) and in terms of DESIGN (invented the airplane, among many other gadgets and machines). He had a fantastic imagination. He had a long term relationship with one of his pupils. I read a biography about him and it was fascinating.
P.S. Michelangelo was gay too, BTW.
Billy Budd
Sorry, I meant Invented the helicopter.
MacAdvisor
Billy Budd, love your opera, but da Vinci really didn’t “invent” the helicopter. His drawing ( which can be seen here: h t t p : // w w w . leonardo da vincis inventions . com/ inventions-for-flight/leonardo-da-vinci-helicopter/ ) couldn’t possibly have worked *even if* there was some way of providing the necessary motive power. First, it lacks the tail, which is what keeps the bottom of the helicopter from spinning in the opposite direction of the blades. The moment any lift was achieved, Newton’s Third Law of Motion, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, the base would spin. Second, the helical rotor on top doesn’t really provide lift. Helicopter blades achieve lift by force the same amount air to traveling over the top to take longer than the air underneath. The differential in air pressure of this pushes the blades up.
Billy Budd
I know about all that, Mac Advisor. I am a mechanical engineer. But Da Vinci ENVISIONED the machine.
MacAdvisor
You have one of the great professions in the world. I agree da Vinci envisioned something like the helicopter. That seems a bette verb, otherwise we’d have to agree Gene Roddenberry invented teleportation (when it finally does become a reality) or the flip phone.
rand503
I have a bio of him and it barely mentions his sexuality. Yes, he was arrested for have sex with a man, no evidence of what had happened. Likely the charges were dropped.
I hope this comes out. Long time ago I got into a rather vehement argument with a guy who claimed he was a da Vinci scholar, and was an expert on his art. He insisted that da Vinci was not gay, and there is no evidence. I explained, yes there is, lots of it. He kept saying, he’s an expert and so I should defer to him, full stop. I said, you might be an expert on his art, but you know little about his life. He was miffed. I hope he sees this.
Billy Budd
Read “Leonardo Da Vinci” by walter Isaacson. Lots of undisputable evidence. Taken directly from his writings.
jtgaybear
To my knowledge, he was accused twice for sodomy and once lashed for the offense and the other time acquitted. As I recall from a European documentary. I doubted that it was broadcasted in the us because it was German.
Scout
If Leonardo had not been sexually frustrated and an outsider from the mainstream, he may not have vented by creating such amazing art. Most artistic geniuses had psychological problems because they did not feel accepted, and their art was their outlet.